They’ve learned to read a newspaper, write letters, use computers and manage money, disabled adult students told the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School board this week.

But their Adults with Disabilities program is facing severe reductions, along with most of the district’s Adult Education offerings. Parent education programs, English as a Second Language courses and classes for senior citizens are all raising fees for participants, shrinking course offerings, or are being eliminated completely.

The cuts were outlined at Monday’s school board meeting, where more than 32 program participants spoke in support of Adult Education, which serves almost 12,000 students each year.

“I want to continue to learn and I need your help,” said Michael Lossier, an Adults with Disabilities student.

Adult Education is the district’s biggest economic casualty — state funding for the program was cut by 20 percent, and the district had to find a way to cut $1.3 million from its budget.

Adult Education Director Laura Stefanski said officials tried to make the reductions while focusing on the program’s core services. Many of the programs being cut are in locations outside of the adult school’s main campus, and many of the staff positions being eliminated are coordinator and aide positions.

“We’d just developed into this huge program,” Stefanski said after Monday’s meeting. “Now that we have to reduce and streamline, you have to go back to where you started.”

The cuts proposed at Monday’s meeting are expected to be finalized by the board on May 11.

Under the proposal, the district would save about $370,000 by cutting its Adults with Disabilities offerings nearly in half. The program, which provides classes ranging from “Pet Care” to “Work Behavior,” will no longer offer classes in Santa Clara or Menlo Park.

There are few other education options for the 140 students they’ll be losing, coordinator Ailene Genoff said in a phone interview Tuesday.

“The students and the population and the needs aren’t going away,” said Genoff, whose own position has been eliminated.

She said it was “disturbing” that so many services directly affecting students could be cut, while the district is proposing cutting only $143,000 from Adult Education’s $2.2 million administrative support budget.

ESL and citizenship programs also will be chopped nearly in half, for a savings of $330,969.

“We’re going to have to exercise some sort of triage,” coordinator Ron Kirchem said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

The program serves 1,200 to 1,500 people at any one time. Kirchem, who was laid off, said he has been working on an application process since the demand for classes will be so high. Priority will be given to immigrants, he said, rather than temporary visitors.

Many of those who spoke at Monday’s board meeting expressed support for Adult Education’s Parent Education program, which offers a co-op preschool and parenting classes.

The district has asked that program to become entirely self-supporting. Preschool families recently approved a 70 percent increase in their tuition, Board President Dara Tynefield said.

The “vast majority” of families are sticking with the program despite the increase, Tynefield recently said, but the preschool will be increasing class sizes by a few students.